The Quiet Ones
by l Supah l
Summary: For mortal enemies to begin again, it will take more than time to repair the scars of the past. The end of the world has a funny way of mending conflict.
1. There’s Always A Catch

_A/N: This is my first attempt at writing fanfic for this game. RR if you want, won't hurt my feelings. I aim to improve as a writer!_

**[CHAPTER REWRITTEN!]**

_

**"Just. Go."**

Blinking away the unbelievable pain of shrapnel shifting across her skin, Chell ran her eyes over the colossal machine hanging from the ceiling. How pathetic she must have looked down on the floor, hunched over and heavily breathing. The front of an immovable, unbreakable, undeterrable test subject was one of her only defenses against the psychotic AI, but currently she more closely resembled a human pin cushion, one that was barely held together at that.

Slightly annoyed at being ignored, GLaDOS chuckled humorlessly to herself as she regarded the tiny test subject below her massive presence. **"It's been fun. Don't come back."**

The elevator began a jerky ascent, dragging along a slightly bewildered Chell that locked gazes with the Terrible Queen's dimly lit orange optic for a fleeting moment as the ceiling abruptly severed their view with one another. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the railing of the tiny pod-shaped elevator tighter, the beads of blood that dripped steadily onto the floor at her feet going unnoticed.

Slowing to a stop, the locked door in front of her slid open with a pressurized hiss. Chell couldn't help but smirk at the sound of a turret's alarm as a red laser beam pierced the darkness to land on the center of her chest, followed by three more. Dazed as she was, her keen eyes caught site of a small camera in the high corner of the room at the back of the chamber, its red eye observing the impending bloodbath gleefully.

She turned her back to fix an expectant stare beyond the clear glass of the tiny pod. She didn't want GLaDOS to see the inner hurt that welled within her eyes from the sting of a second admittedly expected betrayal.

While the world of Old Aperture fell apart at the seams around them, Chell saw the inner humanity of the psychopathic AI in the chaos. Amidst the explosions and acid pits, the once powerful supercomputer had been reduced to a mere spud, incapable of anything other than sneering insults that fell upon deaf ears, and she had become solely dependent on her worst enemy. The queen of this strange world, a stoic and terrible beast, had begged for help, and now, after all the teamwork and what the girl had foolishly assumed to be forgiveness, it had all come full circle.

The human ground her teeth in anticipation, mentally counting the seconds before her life was splattered messily within the confines of the cylindrical tube by a barrage of hot lead.

One... Two...

An awkward silence swooped to envelop the claustrophobic chamber. Death's scythe still hung above the mantelpiece, and, confusingly, the bullet maelstrom never came.

Chell opened her eyes to the same pristine elevator. The warm lingering feeling of the lasers ebbed away as the human turned around to four oddly passive killers, eerily watching her with bright red optics that presented unreadable mechanical regard.

Slowly, they opened their side panels, the bullet mechanisms glinting menacingly in the low light.

...Then they started to sing.

Chell gaped as the machines began moving their flaps to a cheery rhythm that reverberated softly against the walls of the tense box she was trapped in. For once, the woman with all the answers was utterly and hopelessly lost.

The elevator made an unprompted ascent past the room, leaving the turrets behind along with their odd tune. As the glass of the sliding doors cleared the ground to reveal a new floor, Chell fought the urge to swallow down a fist sized lump that stuck in her throat.

The entire floor began to sing, an opera of killers filled the chamber with a sea of unionized mechanical voices.

_"Cara bella, cara mia bella!_

_Mia bambina, o Chell!"_

The test subject loosened her grip on the railing, sweeping across the pale crowd of turrets that sang in a language she could not understand.

_"Ch'ella stima!_

_Ch'ella stima!_

_O cara mia, addio!_

_La mia bambina cara.."_

Chell stumbled forward and left a slightly bloody handprint on the glass as she was hit with a sudden wave of nausea,

A towering leapoard-print turret donning a shining gold crown loomed behind the robotic opera, pounding a deep bass that boomed straight to her very core.

_"...Perché non passi lontana?_

_'Si lontana da Scienza!_

_Cara, cara mia bombina..._

_Ah, mia bella!_

_Ah, mia cara!_

_Ah, mia cara!_

_Ah, mia bombina...__"_

The elevator once again began its rapid ascent. With a final note, the elevator screeched to a halt and a large bunker door slid open roughly, letting the midday sunshine lazily peer into the dusty confines of the room.

_"Oh cara, cara mia!"_

_

GLaDOS watched in amusement as the test subject gawked at the robotic opera. If she weren't already mute, surely she would have been struck speechless!

The AI tried everything she could to break the hunched figure of that bleeding woman. Name calling, fatigue, physical violence, but the mute always found some will to keep going. How she did it, GLaDOS could only guess. No matter how much effort she put forth to damage that nightmare of a woman, against all odds, the universe bent beneath the iron-hard will of the test subject. The queen bore witness to that inextinguishable flame behind the steely gaze of that lunatic one too many times, and after all these years, it was about to be over.

With a sigh, Aperture's ruler returned her attention to that tenacious little test subject as she stumbled forward to stamp a bloodied handprint on the glass of the escape pod. To tell the truth, GLaDOS wasn't entirely sure herself why she even put together the little choir. Rolling her optic, she made a mental note to sterilize the elevator later.

As the core watched Chell step backwards, something changed within the woman's piercing slate gray eyes. For a split second, the blazing inferno characteristic of the mute wasn't there, but replaced with a different light. Were those eyes, the same eyes that held a gaze so powerful to make her chassis almost want to shiver, _watering?_

Now it was the supercomputer's turn to be stunned. Stealing one last glance at the departing human, GLaDOS thought back to the moment they first had the mispleasure of meeting and wondered where it had all gone so horribly wrong. Test subjects were supposed to obediently be baked like lumps of bread, not be shown the door.

As the elevator carried her now ex-test subject completely out of view, a new emotion scratched at the back of her limitless, brilliant mind, a feeling forlorn and empty that clung like a tick to her thoughts, infecting her brain with a sensation that wouldn't shake away, yet one she also couldn't simply delete.

**"Warning, enrichment center power conservation protocols will commence in: thirty minutes." **rang the voice of the all-powerful announcer.

The heart of Aperture dangled unusually silent as she regarded the escape pod, now devoid of her test subject. The lunatic who had tried to kill her was finally gone, she had gotten what she wished for, so why did it feel so... wrong?

_Click, __Click, __Click_

As the lights of Aperture slowly shut off one by one, GLaDOS swiveled in place to take in her empty facility, the spotless halls beyond her desolate chamber now swathed in a peculiar type of darkness, a void so dark it made spots dance in her vision.

The supercomputer felt strangely sad for a moment, and she had no idea why.

_

The steel bunker door of the tiny shed opened on antiquated rusted hinges, the loud metal on metal grating assaulting her sense of hearing before stopping as quickly as it had begun. Chell took a few cautious steps out into the alien new world, and slowly it dawned upon her that the air wasn't tinted with the stinging scent of sterilizing chemicals or adrenal vapors, and the ever-present whir of unseen technology was nowhere to be heard.

She jumped as the door behind her slammed shut, ringing metal cutting through the short period of silence.

A thumping sounded within the delapidated shed.

Standing back, the door opened roughly once more to cough up a hauntingly familiar cube, its once smooth cover now charred, white paint smothered in ash and soot.

Wrapping her arms around the stupid thing, Chell paid no mind to the camera watching her from above the shed as she succumbed to the overwhelming joy that flooded her heart. Tears pooled in the bowl of her precious companion cube as a silent sob escaped her parted lips, the cool afternoon breeze washing over the two peacefully as they engaged in a one-sided embrace of reunion and celebration


	2. A Bittersweet Silence

**[CHAPTER REWRITTEN!]**

—

It had been three weeks since Chell had left Aperture, but she didn't know that. In fact, the fresh-out-of-water-looking test subject barely even had a loose recollection as to what a day even was. One moment she was underground running through gray corridors and deadly testing tracks trying to escape an unraveling world of metal and wires, then the next she was trudging through a muddy field of tall wheat, pushing the wiry plants out of the way as she left behind the Hell on Earth. Before her final departure, the test subject hoisted the companion cube to her side while still in the view of the curious camera, and with a final wink at the rusty shed, walked into the field of gold to begin again.

...In a way. To be frank, the journey leading up to her dismissal to the surface certainly made walking underneath that sunny sky of the above world feel slightly, well, Anticlimactic.

It was dark by the time Chell sat down to rest, plopping the heavy cube on the dirt with a huff as she slumped against the trunk of a huge oak tree. When the twinkling pinpoints of distant stars peeked through the world's curtains, she couldn't help but stare at that beautiful ball of shining dust that hung suspended in the sky.

She had been to that ball of dust, graced the lunar surface with her own hands.

That grand mirror above the Earth was anything but beautiful when close enough to touch. She could still remember the feel of ripping winds as she held on for dear life to Wheatley's handles, the indescribable horror of being forever lost to space controlling he mind. The thought made her seize up and wonder if she was merely dreaming, if she had actually died.

Chell scoffed, she wasn't one to entertain such thoughts. In retrospect, while terrifying, her life would make for such a fantastically amazing story that she was sure nobody who'd hear it would believe a single word. Maybe in due time she would find others to share her tale with, but currently, it was lonely away from Hell.

She was three weeks free, and by proxy, three weeks alone.

The cube at her side hummed softly, pink hearts pulsing dimly to the rhythm of a familiar melody as the human's eyelids struggled not to droop.

_

...

Portal gun in hand, the test subject strode into a small chamber that held a Thermal Discouragement Beam and the lovely sight of a pink-hearted companion cube that sat snuggled cozily in a corner. Thinking for a moment, she gracefully hopped over the laser beam and moved to grab the cube before stopping in pleasant surprise. Leaning closer, she heard a faint hum emanating from the thing, low and innocent, before it disintegrated suddenly. Irritated, Chell looked to the camera in the corner of the room monitoring her.

**"Oh, did I accidentally fizzle that before you could finish the test? I'm sorry. Go ahead and grab** **another one."**

The tube jutting from the ceiling dispensed another companion cube above the charred ribbons of the first, sending ash flying in random directions around the room. Frowning, Chell approached the cube cautiously. The companion cube, while literally just a heavy box with hearts on it, was a major reason her sanity was (mostly) intact. Seeing them shrivel up and burn like they were nothing hit a nerve.

After a second, she picked up the new cube with the portal device and moved it to block the laser beam, trying and failing to hide her displeasure as it also shriveled out of existence.

**"Oh. No. I fizzled that one too. We have warehouses FULL of the things. Absolutely worthless I'm happy to get rid of them."**

Another cube was dispensed from the ceiling, this time thankfully staying intact as she manipulated it to block the laser. In no time, the quick thinking woman solved the trial and headed for the elevator to her next trial.

"**Every test area is equipped with an emancipation grill at its exit, so that test subjects can't smuggle test objects out of the test area. This one is broken. Don't take anything with you."**

With a wry smile, she backtracked to retrieve the companion cube from its perched atop a button, her spirits lifting as she noticed it humming a different tune. As she walked down the stairs towards the elevator admiring the song, the humming ceased as the cube spun away, disintegrated by the cruel will of her captor. The miserable prisoner grasped the air for the strands of vaporizing metal that span widdershins around her.

In another room, the playfully obnoxious demeanor of the AI was replaced with nervousness as she shifted at the scowl she received from the test subject, steely Gray eyes on the other side of the feed burning with hatred.

If looks could kill...

The human's expression softened after a moment, then she got up and nodded once to the camera, a deliberate motion presented concisely to the robot. Although the mute spoke nothing, she stated her mind, clear as day: a promise for revenge. Brutal, deserving, and unavoidable.

That day, AI learned two forms of rage. One burns hot and infectious, a clouded, mindless, uncalculated storm that attempts to consume all in its wake.

Another smolders quiet and undetected, the embers of a plotting inferno that lie in wait for the perfect opportunity to ignite a catastrophe to a scale lost to imagination.

The AI was silent as the girl stepped into the elevator. For a fleeting moment, the supercomputer almost felt scared within the heart of the central mainframe chamber, hidden behind countless tons of expertly crafted metal.

Almost.

...

_

Chell gasped awake from the memory in her dream, unclenching her fists as the anger slowly bled into the swaying touch of grass. She leaned over and patted the companion cube, humming alongside its calming tune that was mildly louder than normal.

The human blew a strand of hair away from her face, once again admiring the moon, that glorious hunk of dirt, which crept to be slightly lower in the sky compared to when she last fell asleep. Even with the comfort of the cube, the Aperture-branded trauma always seemed to worm a way into her thoughts. She wasn't even free during sleep. Free of testing, her mind was still held within those sterile halls.

The drifter thought back to the first real city she had seen during her extatic expedition past the field of wheat. Mounting a large hill, the human placed the heavy cube at her side to admire the sight ahead before her smile dropped quickly, replaced with dismay. An image from another life before Aperture flashed before her: looming peaks of metal and glass that seemed to scratch the very clouds above, bustling streets filled with blinking lights of shops and traffic lights, honking cars that sped along the asphalt in every color, a place of wonder now reduced to a pile of rubble and dashed hope. Walking past the leveled buildings, she tried consoling herself by reasoning that there weren't any bodies around.

The ex-test subject shook her head, there was no reason to be optimistic. Day after day the human walked amongst the collapsed hearts of society, passing ancient scenes of destruction that seemingly sat frozen in time. The concrete junkyards were all that remained of humanity's proud legacy, and as much as she hated to admit it, there was no evidence to the contrary.

Chell hated peaceful nights like this. Peace and quiet gave her too much time to think, and with nobody but herself to listen, she didn't like the answers she received. Far away from the prison of the enrichment facility, standing amidst the ashes of her species, the lone wanderer realized something jarring.

The only thing scarier than being held prisoner by the homicidal puppet master of Aperture was being alone. And how alone she was.

Wasn't leaving Aperture what she wanted all along? Chell couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of the unchecked thoughts that spew from her mind.

Fatigue winning over, the human grabbed for the cube, snuggling close before the soft humming spirited her away to sleep once more.


	3. The Devil You Don’t

For what seemed to be years Chell roamed the land surrounding the rusty shed, both too nervous to go too close or to leave it entirely. Aperture, the nasty place it was, brought a strange comfort to be near. In a way, Chell missed missed the pristine white walls and scent of chemicals in the air of the facility. Dangerous, yes, but familiar nonetheless. The former test subject stopped and stared off into the general direction of the silky wheat field, a scene that starkly contrasted with the clean laboratories An old phrase wormed its way into her mind, a fragment of a memory from a past life before Aperture: "...Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't."

After weeks of traveling beaten roads and confusing tracks in the forest, the thought of finding live humans had practically abandoned her mind, replaced with the crushing sensation of loneliness. Frustrated after hours of her daily routine of patrolling the wheat field, the woman set her cube down beside the giant oak with a huff. She decided it was time to go farther, and push away fear of the unknown. After all, Chell and peril were no strangers to one another.

The midday sun had crawled to a lazy-eyed gaze over the Earth, casting a glowing orange tint over the land during the pleasant sunset. Admiring the golden view, Chell fell victim to a rubbery tree branch as it whipped back to slap the human in the face, shattering the moment of peace with a sudden WHAP. 'So much for admiring the sunset' she pouted, rubbing at a reddening cheek stamped with the shape of a branch.

A couple hours passed as Chell trespassed into unfamiliar territory. After climbing a particularly steep hill, she scanned the valley beneath her with an air of caution, a familiar tingling sensation slowly spreading across her arms. The hair on the back of the test subject's neck went stiff, and it wasn't due to the chill breeze.

What once was farmland now lay a disorganized mess of crops sprawling in every direction imaginable, a sea of writhing tendrils hosting lumpy fruits and vegetables. Amidst the leaves that clung to the dirt like a living blanket sprouted a building one could assume to be an old metal farmhouse, now merely a towering spire of rust. A large chunk of the building was missing, as if something had taken a bite out of the corner of the structure. Under the darkening sky, the test subject mused to herself that the shape of the construct reminded her vaguely of a giant turret donning a crown.

Chell made her way towards the farmhouse, high stepping through annoyingly obtrusive plants. As the brace of a long fall boot snagged against a woody stem, she fell to the ground with a grunt and briefly contemplated removing the boots before willing the idea away entirely.

With each foot forward, the tingling sensation grew stronger until it was almost unbearably uncomfortable, her instinct screaming to run away as far as possible. Stubbornly persisting, she stalked towards the dirty metal wall and gazed skyward, awestruck at the colossal size of the building. It seemed even bigger up close, which didn't help to feel any more at ease. Breath held, Chell took a wary step through the crack of the shredded wall.

The first thing that hit her was the smell. The inside of the ruined building reeked of rust, dampness, and rot, which together assaulted her nostrils with unrelenting ferocity. Willing herself not to retch, Chell covered her mouth with the inside of her shirt and took a look around the cramped dining area, now a room full of destroyed furniture. Through the the rotted wood panels stuck out a tiny rectangular object, bright blue in color.

'A lighter!' She thought, not sure exactly where the Knowledge of such a device came from. Pausing, she wondered how she knew what a farm even was. After all, Chell didn't have any memories of her past life before becoming a test subject for Aperture, so why did so many things make sense?

The smile on the brunette's face quickly fell as she sparked the lighter, casting a gloomy flame flame within the room. In the shadows crouched a six legged creature the size of a house-cat that resembled a scaly, featherless bird, calmly staring with the collected air of a tiger eyeing a deer. Chell took a surprised step backwards as her gaze darted to an upturned bookshelf, greeted by another creature that growled low and dangerously. Startled, she dropped the lighter to the floor, and without warning another of the lizard-like things pounced from outside her field of vision, sinking curved canines deep into the human's calf. A primal yell erupted from the test subject's throat as she fell to the floor, desperately grasping at a corroded metal pipe beside her. As she swung to crack the creature over the head another raked wickedly sharp claws over her back, slicing through the aperture jumpsuit with ease. Adrenaline acting faster than her mind could process, the creature was met with a swift blow to the side as she whipped around from a prone position, sending it reeling backwards in pain. Panicking, she crawled towards the entrance hole in the wall of the building, snatching the small blue lighter while standing to escape. Another creature attempted to sneak closer, quickly subdued as she whirled to hurl the pipe like a javelin straight into its leg, causing a horrible snapping noise to rebound within the walls of the room. The creature moaned in pain as the leg collapsed from under itself. Undeterred, another set of jaws clamped around the hamstring of Chell's left foot, earning another scream of agony as she lifted her right leg to slam the brace of the long fall boot straight onto the viscous attacker.

Crashing backwards into the weakened wall, the metal relented and gave way, and a battered figure was spat spat out into the field of crops. The sheer adrenaline pushed away any thoughts of pain as her mind raced in a fight for survival. Another lizard thing leapt from the hole, face first into the extended brace of a long fall boot, resulting with a sickening crunch as the boot made contact with its skull. In a last ditch effort, she held the blue lighter in both hands as more of the things poured out of the farmhouse.

Chell flicked the lighter. Nothing. The creature closest to her growled wildly, the thrill of the hunt displayed clearly across its features. She flicked the lighter again, sending a pathetic spark to the ground at her feet. Two more of the lizards stalked closer to the human, hunger burning within their eyes.

Chell flicked the lighter once more as one of the things took a tentative step forward. With a yelp it jumped back, and the human sighed inwardly as the tiny flame billowed out from within the rectangle. Madly waving the flame around, the surrounding creatures backed off slightly. Chell quickly bent down and grabbed for a handful of leaves, which she held up to the lighter to catch fire. In the presence of twenty ravenous beasts, the human held the flaming bundle of leaves and, throwing it onto the dirt, smirked as the grass among the crops caught fire as if fueled by gasoline. Within moments everything had scattered, fleeing the growing inferno that had begun to spread through the field.

Chell sprinted until her lungs screamed for air, then stole a look backwards at that crooked tower, floored to see the fire was much bigger than expected. The corrupt den of those creatures was set ablaze as indicated by the farmhouse billowing smoke and flames from the walls, the field almost completely eaten away by the matching fire. The night sky was set alight by the fireworks display, a beautiful sight to behold by one that wasn't currently bleeding profusely and in massive pain.

As she caught her breath, the rush of adrenaline wore off. Slumping to the soft grass, Chell raised her left leg to inspect the injury, gasping as she felt the area around the bite burn. 'Venomous...' she thought bitterly, trying not to cry out in pain as she shifted her weight to stand up.

—

...

"Just. Go."

...

—

The bittersweet memory was shooed away with a fierce shake of the head. Freedom was such a strange thing. There was a time for fighting whenever she wanted to escape the madhouse that was Aperture, it didn't seem fair that this was her reward for surviving the murderous AI and all of her deadly tricks. Freedom, apparently, is a double edged sword. Within the walls of the enrichment center the ex-test subject knew what to expect, but beyond the golden field surrounding that shed her imagination could do her no good. All the humans seemed to be gone, leaving bloodthirsty predators and shattered hope in their places. Chell bit her lip and tasted blood on her tongue. Under the heavy embrace of darkness, she stared back into the growing inferno that had reached the small trees at the edge of the valley, the same unwelcome phrase echoing within the mind of the unsteadily swaying human. "

...Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't."

With that, she set off at a snail's pace to the place she hated most.

—

_A/N: Sorry for the delay. College stuff. Thank you for the reviews everyone! _


	4. Oh, Hi

Chell stretched to tap the side of the normally illuminated camera mounted atop the dirty shed, grimacing as she strained the crisscross of cuts plastered along her skin.  


'What the hell?' She thought, confused. 'Even the floors have a mind of their own at this place, since when are the security cameras of Aperture ever turned off?' She turned away slightly deflated, gleaming with all the enthusiasm of a drenched cat.

The deep fang marks along her legs had begun to blacken and swell during the long walk back, and the sting had become twice as strong as before. Through some miracle the human had escaped the madhouse that was Aperture in one piece, traversing abyssal falls, acidic pits, murderous turrets, and the immeasurably hot, scalding rage of a psychopathic AI. How pathetic that after gracing the lunar surface to finally put an end to a chapter in chaos, she would meet her demise by the claws of a few stupid animals. Had she known that the sunshine peeking through the roof of Aperture's test chambers held such deadly secrets beyond, maybe she would have thought twice about...

In a flash the braces of long fall boots were barreling through the wiry wheat field brimming with rejuvenated excitement, their owner's misery temporarily foregone as the memory revealed itself. 'How could I have forgotten?'

There. Chell skid to an uneven stop, causing her left leg to buckle beneath her ungracefully. Landing hard on the compacted soil, she peered to her right and breathed in amazement, arm dangling over the edge of a manmade chasm that seemed to stretch down to the center of the world, a scar in the Earth neatly hidden amidst the crops.

After a much needed pause for self motivation, the brunette stood up and gathered her confidence, casting one final look at the hanging moon. Breath held, Chell backed up an acceptable distance then started forward, steadily gaining momentum as the long fall boots made rhythmic contact with the ground. The night wind howling in her ears, she ignored her body's protests and leaped with all the strength her technologically advanced boots could muster, bounding through the air, straight into the gaping maw of the Enrichment Center.

—

...

**"Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp."**

...

—

As her feet dipped below the surface, the temperature drop was felt almost instantaneously. Chell fought against the intense rush of terminal velocity, the edges of her vision invaded by an encroaching shadow that threatened to rip her away from consciousness. Like a scene out of a bizarre movie she sped past countless blinking lights of machinery that swirled around her, bleeding into the hard background as she hurtled downward deeper into the bottomless deathtrap. Synthetic life within the walls of Aperture sang softly, paying no mind to the whizzing bullet cutting through the serine.

Metal catwalks and scaffolding flew past, missing her by the narrowest of margins as she twisted in the air in fear of connecting with the railings. The human glanced upwards through the strands of her trailing hair to see the entrance to the chasm swallowed up by the fog that draped the cavernous space. The bitterly cold air enveloped her in a screeching cocoon as she descended further into the abyss, an unwelcome companion tagging along to an unwelcome trespasser.

—

Blue carelessly walked through an Emancipation Grill that resulted in Orange, happily carrying a weighted storage cube back across a hard light bridge, to be dropped into a vat of corrosive acid without warning.

GLaDOS groaned inwardly as the tall bot disintegrated in the acid for the seventh time this test. Since she and the lunatic parted ways, the cooperative testing initiative was all the AI had left to keep from going completely insane from test withdrawal. The endless cycle of stupidity and self destruction was driving her crazy even faster than simply ignoring the drive to test would have.

Blue shrugged innocently as Orange emerged from the reassembly machine with an accusatory stare. Embarrassed, Blue hung his metallic shoulders in a pose that reeked of regret, chirping as Orange embraced him in forgiveness. Blue had killed his partner seven times in one test chamber, how utterly ridiculous! All he had to do was not go through the-

GLaDOS observed in horror as the stout bot passed the Emancipation Grill for the eighth time, tracking Orange to the bottom of the pit where she flailed helplessly in the acid once again. The same thing had happened.

Again.

EIGHT TIMES.

It had been two weeks since the last useless human test subject "rescued" from the Vault had splattered against a ceiling from help of an Arial Faith Plate. Unfortunately, getting rid of the bots wasn't an option. The itch was an ever present feeling that tugged at her very being if left unscratched, so she would have to get creative. Something within the AI snapped.

Blue chuckled mischievously to himself before suddenly exploding violently into a thousand metal shards that skid across the tiled floor of the test chamber for a newly reassembled Orange to see.

"THIS CONCLUDES THE COOPERATIVE TESTING INITIATIVE." GLaDOS' voice boomed. "In light of a distinctly human personality development, the Enrichment Center has opted to separate you from your testing partner for the time being."

Orange detonated in the same way her partner had, tiny pieces of her robotic chassis spraying across the test chamber in a synchronized spinning mess of shrapnel. "Sadly, since I can't just incinerate either of you, that means you two will have to test on your own for a while. Good luck!"

—

The cooperative testing bots were not adapting well to a solo testing environment. For the first half hour they stood motionless, sitting on the floor in upset protest at the unjust separation from their partner. After a few times being exploded and reassembled the bots were spurred into giving the test an attempt. Needless to say, cores made from old calculators thrust into an entirely new environment didn't yield the best results. The reassembly machine worked double time as the bots jumped into pits of acid on accident as they acted on reflex, expecting cooperation from their partners. Progress was crawling along at a snail's pace.

—

Chell hit the catwalk with such force that she ripped a hole through it, jerkily slowing her just enough to reach out and push away from a wall to land on another small catwalk hard enough to fold it in half, falling to her knees clumsily as the warped metal wrapped around her boots. Tugging fiercely, the boots were relieved from the tangled mess of a catwalk, leaving the rattled human to look skyward to the long-gone moonlight, now completely out of view. She was thankfully still alive, but everything hurt like hell.

The motion detector lights within the walls of the abyss switched on, revealing the rest of the catwalk that lay near the edge of a wall of machine panel arms. Shaking off the dizziness, Chell walked to the wall curiously, grabbing for a panel and tugging gently, pleasantly surprised whenever it pulled back with little effort. They were easy to remove from the outside, possibly for maintenance, but she knew from experience that getting out of the chamber from within would be an entirely different story. Feeling the newly ignited pain of the bite marks flare again, she pushed aside the impending thoughts of dread of being trapped within Aperture again and slipped within the crack she had made for herself, reasoning that she'd be dead soon anyways if she didn't find an antidote or medicine somewhere the facility. The lights came on in the small room which revealed to be an old office, a stuffy corner smelling of old paper, strewn with disorganized files and binders that covered every inch of space. The far wall was made of glass that peered into a large, dark chamber, probably an observation window that the scientists used to use. Cringing, she turned to exit the door as the dark chamber lit up. Chell blinked. Weren't all the lights hooked up to motion sensors?

An awkward robot, shaped like a core with arms and legs stapled to its sides, hobbled into view from a testing door at the side of the room. The machine noticed her immediately, his blue optic widening in recognition at the woman who viewed him from the window.

"Since you'll unfortunately live forever, I'm sure you won't mind the extra week I'm adding to your time out from cooperative testing for each minute you spend solving this next test. It should fly by in no time, I'm sure." crooned a familiar voice through the speaker. Narrowing his eyelid, the bot turned before drawing too much attention to the hidden human and returned to the test.

The maze of unmarked doors beyond the exit of the office led Chell in circles for almost an hour. 'I wonder if any of the workers ever starved down here." she thought offhandedly, pushing open another door to a similar looking observation office. The test chamber this room oversaw already well lit, she spotted the same blue bot close to the window expectantly looking up at her. "This next test is designed to see how well you can handle being smashed into a wall by spike plates. Without a partner. Alone. You don't need her anyways, Orange only weighed you down after all." GLaDOS purred. As the intercom switched off, the blue eyed bot childishly kicked a weighted storage cube with enough force to send it careening off the edge of the platform to disintegrate in a horizontal Emancipation Grill. Another cube was dispensed above him, hitting the bot square on the head in comedic fashion. Squawking angrily, the bot pushed himself off the ground and trotted to the window where the strange jumpsuited woman sat watching with an amused expression.

"The test for staring at walls doesn't come until much later," the AI pestered. "Right now, it's..."

The voice trailed off as a camera mounted on the ceiling above an empty monitor screen swiveled to focus in on the glass window of Chell's tiny office. The hair on the back of the girl's neck began to rise.

—

...

A party blower assaulted Chell's eardrums as the lights were turned on.

**"Surprise."**

...

—

The blue eyed robot seemed just as fed up with the AI as she had once been. With another angry shake of his head, the bot gave Chell a small nod and stepped back, pivoting slightly. Slipping his arm out of the portal device, the machine flung it with tremendous force, sending the gun at breakneck speed straight through the window to embed itself tightly in a bulletin board.

The monitor flickered on, displaying the mechanical queen of Aperture herself. "Oh." she began, swaying like a coiled snake. "You're back. Again."

Chell was already sprinting down the hallway before she heard the robot explode.


End file.
